


Memories

by InvernoOP



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24297259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvernoOP/pseuds/InvernoOP
Summary: Ten years after his 'death', Genji decides to visit you. Several memories resurface.
Relationships: Genji Shimada/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 67





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Third Person POV

Genji watched from outside your window as you scribbled on a piece of paper. You sat at your desk working, lips moving but he wasn’t able to decipher a word. Before he saw you, he was ready to confront you. It had been ten years since he last saw you. Well, ten years and a week but who was counting?

Genji recalled the first time he met you. In order to appease the Elders and Hanzo, Sojiro - Genji’s father - had forced him to tag along with Hanzo on a trip to visit the Nakamara Clan. It’s not like he was against it, after all, Shojin - Genji’s best friend - would be there to make it entertaining. Not only that, but it was also a new city - new women.

It took him three weeks to finally run into you. He was bored, and desperate for a change in pace, so he decided to tag along with Shojin to his Ninja Training. You were one of two Kunoichis. He scored the other girl easily, but you bluntly rejected his advances. Either you completely ignored him, or you responded curtly and with little words as possible. You had a bruise on your face, he never forgot that despite your obvious ability to pin or beat whatever other ninja was placed in the ring with you (besides him or Shojin of course). Anyways, it wasn’t the first time a woman rejected him, so it certainly didn’t matter when he had a full city to play with. It wasn’t until he went with Shojin to a weekly training of the noble family that he figured out where you received your bruise from.

“You never told me you had a sister,” Genji murmured to Shojin before he could stop himself. Shojin merely shook his head, but Genji understood nonetheless - it wasn’t a subject you could speak about in public. It only meant you were probably a bastard or a form of a loan from another clan.

Genji watched you get beaten every time, but the training for the noble family was different. No punches were held back, and it wasn’t over when the other person hit the ground either. The Nakamara Clan was well known in their ability to train their ninjas, but this was something else entirely.

He felt bad for you. He didn’t particularly agree with the brutal session, but it wasn’t his place to complain.

Back then, Genji hated to admit it, but the only reason he accepted the offer to spar was to punch Daichi - the oldest - in the face as hard as he could. Genji had unintentionally cracked the boy’s jaw and jammed his three inner fingers that day, but as he turned he did catch a smile on your face.

That same night he was wandering around the halls, cursing himself mentally for not taking the tour Shojin had offered when he first arrived in the palace. He was looking for the kitchen for a late-night snack when he stumbled upon the dojo with you inside. At first, he ignored you. But then, upon realizing twenty minutes later he couldn’t find the kitchen, he made his way back to the dojo to see if you could take him there.

The moment he stepped inside you paused, swiftly turning around to look at him. You look scared, afraid you had gotten caught, but your face settled into confusion when your brain registered it was him. “Yo!” he greeted, dipping his head.

In a series of fluid steps, you turned your head away from him, heading to the nearest bench, untying the bandages around your hands. From this angle, he noticed a newer bruise wrapping around the side of your neck. 

“And here I thought training this late at night was against the rules.”

“Being out this late is against the  _ rules _ ,” you hiss as you throw the bandages away.

“Ah, so we’re both troublemakers, huh?”

At that point he didn’t know what you were, Shojin still hadn’t informed him, but he still wished he hadn’t said it. Genji saw your shoulders droop as you picked up the small bag on the floor next to the bench, and your poor attempt at swooping past him.

He grabbed your arm. “Perhaps we can help each other?” You were interested, he could tell that much from the raise of your brow. “I could teach you how to fight. If you want.”

“And what would you gain from that?” You ask, snatching your arm from his grip.

“I think we could work that out.”

You paused, eyes squinting. “And what exactly do you want?”

“We both know you’re a baiter. Stop acting so reserved.”

“And we both know you grab random women in the city, so why don’t you go chase a new ass for tonight?”

“It’s too late for that. Besides… what’s the point of doing all that work when I could just come to you?”

You were reluctant at first, but he easily recalled your will slowly fading from your face. He was offering you the only thing you desired at the moment. You wanted to please your father, and at the same time, you wanted to be able to punch Daichi in the face for all the times he’d done it to you.

When he remembered that moment, Genji felt like absolute scum. But at the same time, it was the most important thing he’d ever done in his life. He taught you the same way his sensei taught him. He taught you how to stay on your toes, light on your feet, quick and fast but also precise and powerful.

As those nights of training turned into weeks, he started asking you questions during your breaks. You would never answer much, only the basics (favorite color, dish, activity). When he brought up music you simply shook your head and asked to get back to training. He could see you slowly getting better over time, actually dodging and successfully predicting a move, and he relished at the moment you even socked Daichi in the face.

But as the days grew longer, your time at night grew shorter. With Shojin growing increasingly busy (Summer was the normal season people sought out assassins) he found himself in his room sleeping most of the time. He grew bored one day and ventured out into the garden to find you, tending to one of the flowers. It wasn’t until then did he recollect the fact you told him you liked to garden.

He snuck over to you, successfully scaring you. Genji had caught the kunai you hid in your sleeve as you swiped it towards him, and once you saw him you perked up. Normally he ignored you throughout the day until night time you would train and the occasional moment he would pull you into the guest room he slept in.

You told him about flowers and he in return told you about music (surprisingly you weren’t allowed such a  _ nonessential _ pastime). But then he made a point to always scare you when you met, fingers finding the soft spot of your waist, and then he had you constantly looking over your shoulder.

Now that he thought about it, gazing inside the window at you, he felt bad. But you weren’t looking over your shoulders now, so you had eventually forgotten…

Had you forgotten about him?

He could remember that day in the garden when you taught him about flowers as clear as the day you taught him how to cook your favorite sweet in the kitchen. He recalled you getting sick one day and he fixed them for you. He recalled the day he snuck you out into the city, a city you lived in but was never allowed to visit. He felt his heart slipping into your hands, he felt his day brighten when he saw you, and whenever he took you to bed he began dreading the moment you left in the middle of the night.

He recalled the first time he woke up and his own dragons had vanished. But they had left in the middle of the night, the normal time you slipped out of his room. He had followed their trail to your room - a room he naturally avoided since it was so close to Daichi’s, and knocked on the door quietly. Genji heard you inside, scrambling in an attempt to hide his own dragons from him, before cracking open the door.

He realized a moment too late that he never really explained about his heritage, but that was the moment he realized how deeply he cared for you. The months he spent with you, training, learning about flowers and baking, sneaking you out into your city and into the park… He had started to fall in love with you.

Genji was standing in front of your door like a deer caught in headlights, but he recollected himself and mustered out an invitation. “Breakfast?” It came out in a squeak, a troubled squeak.

He heard his dragons complaining inside about being claustrophobic, his eyes scanning the room behind you before resting on your form once more. “Sure, just give me a sec…” You closed the door before heading over to the sheets you hid his dragons in, then ushered them inside an empty backpack before making your way over to the door again.

That morning, since he had no idea how to inform you, he pretended to not notice you as you slipped his spirit animals handfuls of rice and pancakes. You excused yourself for seconds, going back to the kitchen to make some more. Genji quickly checked on the two animals inside before heading into the kitchen to help you.

The rest of the day, the two of you lazed about in the garden. Genji himself was relaxing in the grass, arms behind his head as he stared up in the sky. “Uhmm, Genji… Can I… Can I show you something?”

He opened his eyes leisurely, gazing over at you as you looked around nervously. At first he thought something was wrong, but when he sat up and you held out your bag, a laugh escaped him. When Genji explained you shoved him, cursing him in the five languages you knew, then pouted as you turned away. But, in order to get back on your good side, he offered to introduce you to both of them.

Yaki - the sane female who was lean, agile, keen, and took a liking to you - and Soba - a pudgy male that was more into eating than fighting. They were both complete opposites, but it explained why Genji himself had a ‘colorful personality’ (as his father would call it).

Genji wanted to explain more, even tell you what exactly it meant when his dragons revealed themselves to you. It had been a long eight months of a growing friendship before you both had fallen in love with each other - he wasn’t sure who had first - but the connection he felt with you was strong. But, before he could, your father appeared, with Hanzo, Shojin, and Daichi in tow. Genji listened as Hanzo explained that they needed to go home, a solid month in advance. When he refused, on behalf of his unwillingness to separate from you, Hanzo told him about their father. He was dead.

Genji held his breath as he jumped down from your rooftop onto your balcony. He peered at you inside, still leaned over and scribbling onto your paper.

He had basically ghosted you for the next month, grieving for his father. Genji never wanted to leave his room, and that only riled his brother up more. The idea to leave everything behind, to start everything anew, came to him in a dream. He wasn’t happy here. He was never happy in Hanamura, only content.

Then he thought of you. Immediately regret coursed through him. It had been an entire month, had you forgotten? His dragons certainly didn’t. After the dream, they urged him to go see you. They wanted to check on their mate.

So the next day, as soon as the sun set, he headed to the subway - and traveled the four-hour journey to see you. He easily slipped in, having engraved the lookouts movements and positions in his mind, and crept through the hallway to your room.

He slipped into your room, locking the door behind, walking over to your bed. Once he saw you, the worry faded from him. There was no way you hated him for disappearing if so he would just try to get you back.

When Genji touched you, he closed a hand around your mouth to muffle your scream. He easily caught the kunai sent his way and held you down until you realized it was him. “Genji?” Once it slipped from your mouth he crawled into your bed, nuzzling into your form. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m leaving,” he told you bluntly, pulling back. “Please. Come with me.” His thumb brushed along your cheek as he leaned in, nose pressed against yours.

You didn’t have to respond verbally. The moment you raised your lips to his, he knew you would go with him. And when you wrapped your arms around his neck, opening your legs for him to settle on your chest, he felt his soul finally relax. Around you, he felt safe. He felt like himself.

The next night both of you met in a hotel in Hanamura. From there you would catch the subway to the coastline and then a ship. Yaki was playing with a rope toy you found at the store and Soba was curled up next to the heater. Both of you curled up in bed, lazily kissing.

What drew him closer were the gentle yet firm touches, the fiery, determined kisses, and then the slight pull on his shirt to beckon him closer.

That night something snapped inside him. He felt Yaki slip from him, intent on staying with you - his mate, his love, his other half. Genji felt your emotions, your love for him, the desire to stay with him, the trust you placed in him.

It was the first night you spent in his arms.

And it was the last in ten years.

Genji recalled the need to tell his brother he was leaving, he expected him to get mad but he hadn’t expected it to go so far. If he knew what pain he would have gone through, he never would have gone back.

Genji swiftly typed in the code for the balcony door, it was his birthday, and quietly opened the door. Slowly he advanced towards you, watching as you tapped your pencil.

That night, the fight with Hanzo, was the last night you ever felt his presence. He could imagine you dropping to the subway floor, screaming as you felt all of it. The cutting, the ripping, the tearing. Even his fear, his denial at what his brother was doing. You probably felt all the knives digging into you as the doctors of Overwatch strived to save him. Worse, you probably felt him fading, being gone, and coming back only to start fading again. And when Genji was finally conscious, when he finally decided it would be best to close you off and never see you again, you felt him fade again and never come back.

He was afraid of hurting you. And then he was too angry at himself, too disgusted to visit you. It wasn’t until Master Zenyatta that he realized that he loved you, and he needed to try.

Genji purposely stepped on a balled-up paper, effectively gaining your attention.

There was fear in your eyes as you stood abruptly, scrambling for something behind you to defend yourself. Once you figured out you had nothing, your fearful gaze turned into a begging one.

“Who are you?” You ask, trying to keep your voice steady. “Whoever sent you… I… I’m not affiliated with the Nakamara Clan anymore…”

He watched as your eyes flicked across the room. Finally, he opened the link between you again, stepping forward. Genji watched as the green flicked beside you, Yaki appearing to greet her long lost master. It had been so long since he felt his other dragon’s presence but he held back to watch your reaction.

Yaki ran up to Genji and he caught her, holding the dragon in his arms. His eyes stayed on you, however, and you took a step towards him.

“Genji?”


End file.
